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All posts for the month March, 2017

I came out of this with a much higher opinion of Search for Spock than I did going in. It’s an ensemble piece which has the requisite emotional beats to support an action movie. I do think Derek is right about the crew–rather than Kirk–taking over the ship.The original Star Trek movies do have a problem where they don’t handle dealing with younger folks better. I would prefer a Star Trek that’s more open about young kids and their new ideas without being sarcastic. Maybe that’s a bit much to ask for in this context though.Am I right? Is there some ineffable difference between Kirk’s actions at the end of Search for Spock and Kal-El’s actions in Man of Steel? It feels different, I just can’t put words to it.My misquote was from Douglas Adams. “I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”The Addams Family was from 1991, seven years after Search for Spock. George Takei was in Mulan.

The trailer we’re watching can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW7neKZFKE0.

This episode is average, but in Season 1 it’s top-notch. It’s also our first look at the Federation scientist who’s willing to do terrible things for their science. I like that idea and I’m always glad when it’s revisited. Derek and I talk for the first time about Stellaris and the “Space Sl*t Bang Collective.” Forgive us. This will continue until we all get tired of Stellaris again.

FYI. The crystal aliens should be called Velarians, Starfleet did NOT put a man on the Moon, I did accidentally quote Jurassic Park, and I’m 80% sure the Snorks suck.

Our topical reference was Susan J. Fowler’s blog about working at Uber. It’s worth a Google and read.

The Beige and The Bold is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcasting platforms. It updates Monday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT.

Wrathy enough? Too Wrathy? Are the Wrathy levels just right? I think that consensus is behind “enough Wrathyness.” I agree and remarkably, so does Derek. It’s always hard to quantify what goes right instead of what goes wrong. Khan has weight and depth, even if his actions are two-dimensional. Sulu and Uhura don’t do much more here than they do in The Motion Picture, but Scotty and Chekov do. The Genesis Device is one of the most MacGuffin-y of MacGuffins, but it doesn’t magically resolve the plot. Quite the opposite really.What is it that makes “Wrath of Khan” work?The trailer we’re watching can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wzG1u4zStM. I hope you like spoilers.17 to 01 is available on iTunes. It updates Thursday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT. We’re also amazingly on Stitcher.

I said “Univac” instead of “Multivac” here. Univac is a real computer, but Multivac was a famous supercomputer from a series of short stories by Issac Asimov. Specifically, I was referencing “All the Troubles of the World.” I don’t know if I have to say this, but they’re good reads.

The lack of Aldean culture is an unspoken assumption of this episode, but then The Federation doesn’t have much culture either. Is culture a reflection of cultural strife? Do broken hearts, historically fictitious murderers, and creeping social capgras delusion define the biggest sources of conflict for folks in the US?

Imagination has to play a part in culture, but people in Star Trek can’t be sci-fi nerds imagining their future because they are the future, but if a people don’t have a need to imagine a better future, what do they imagine?

The Beige and The Bold is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcasting platforms. It updates Monday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT.

At long last and in all of its glory, and I mean more of the “all” than the “glory.”It’s really good to get back with everyone. Say what you want about how the movies undermine the series, but there’s more character work in these films than in most of the show. I know I rail against continuity, but the universe progresses here in a way that was never really possible in the TV show. Seriously though, what if Chekov had joined with V’ger here? Uhura? How different would this film have been if it had the balls to leverage its supporting cast?The trailer we’re watching can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rM4ODtN64M17 to 01 is available on iTunes. It updates Thursday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT. We’re also amazingly on Stitcher.

Slavoj Žižek is Slovenian political commentator. And I was serious about June Shannon; you don’t see people from the Honey Boo Boo clan on television because television prefers to show them as figures to be laughed at. Women who are every bit as talented as Marina Sirtis are turned down for roles because they don’t look like Marina Sirtis did in 1987. I don’t know if that’s June Shannon individually, but Derek’s quick dismissal underscores my point, doesn’t it?

The Beige and The Bold is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcasting platforms. It updates Monday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT.

This is pretty good. Phase II probably has the same general quality as The Original Series.Now that I’ve gritted my teeth through the compliments, let’s get into the jabs.I’m just kidding. This episode is okay, I just hate that there’s no deeper execution of the ideas underpinning this episode. My slipshod censoring here is repealed because of my deep and abiding feelings about The Confederacy.Star Trek: Phase II, “Divided We Stand” can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChYhXhj7vY.The trailer we’re watching can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nkegWQe1ZM17 to 01 is available on iTunes. It updates Thursday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT. We’re also amazingly on Stitcher.

I kinda missed that we never got the “whole crew goes on downtime and we see what they do as people” episode in the original series. Maybe in a lot of ways, that’s how “11001001” really separates itself from its predecessor. We constantly complain about the support cast not getting enough attention in TNG, but this is still light years ahead of where they started.

I don’t know when the easy-on-the-eyes set dressing for entertainment crosses into erotica or something harder, but I know it does and am interested in any related information, articles, perspectives you all may have.

The Beige and The Bold is available on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcasting platforms. It updates Monday mornings at 2:00 AM ET / 1:00 CT.